Bonding
by awesome detective DG
Summary: This is a story on the entire team bonding through different scenarios. It will be centered on Bruce and Tony but will feature the entire team. No slash!
1. Chapter 1

**So I started a new story! This will only be a one shot for now. Though if I get ideas later on, I will make more chapters! I wanted to take a break from my other story: _Only one Person Left._**

**But don't worry! A week after this is up, chapter 7 will be up for that story! **

**Allright and here we go!**

Tony's POV

"_Good morning sir. It is currently 9:45 with sunny skies and a bit of cloud cover. The temperature for today will be a warm 25 degrees Celsius" (**AN/ sorry I don't know farenheit. I live in Canada!)**_

A smooth British voice woke Tony from his slumber. He rolled over and groaned as he shoved his face back in his pillow, trying to go back to sleep. 9:45 was way too early in the morning to be awake for his liking.

"_Sorry sir, but I suggest you go down to breakfast, as everyone is waiting for you and it seems that Dr. Banner is getting cranky". _JARVIS's voice came from the air once again.

"Ugh, five more minutes JARVIS."

"_I think not sir."_

Just then, a very loud buzzing sound came out of nowhere, scaring the shit out of Tony. He jumped so hard that he fell out of his bed and onto the hard ground.

Tony pulled himself off of the ground, now unfortunately fully awake with an aching shoulder.

"I bet Banner put you up to this, didn't he."

"_Indeed sir."_

"Idiot…I'll get him back." Tony muttered under his breath as he slowly shuffled to his huge closet. He looked inside and threw on whatever clothes he found first, which happened to be a faded pair of jeans and a muscle shirt. Tony didn't bother to take a shower, so he just made his way slowly toward the tower elevator.

"_I suggest you hurry sir. Dr. Banner looks angrier than ever. And I must add so does Miss Romanoff."_

"Yeah, yeah just keep you pants on." Tony said to the air as he waved his hand around carelessly.

In a ridiculously short amount of time, the elevator arrived at Tony's floor and he got in.

"Kitchen." He said once he had gotten in, and immediately the elevator started moving. It was voice activated of course, so you could just speak out whatever you wanted to say and the elevator would take you there.

Loud ACDC music came on as the elevator dropped floors. 5 minutes later (Stark towers was a big tower), the elevator got to the kitchen floor. The kitchen served as a dining room as well as a normal kitchen in Stark towers, to serve everyone's food needs.

As Tony got out of the elevator, five pairs of angry looking eyes met him.

"Hey guys, I know my face is amazingly awesome, but still, I think this is a bit much." Tony said.

Bruce, Steve, Natasha, and Clint were all sitting at the table in the middle of the room. Tony could hear someone rummaging around the kitchen and could tell that it was Thor.

Natasha and Clint were on one side of the table, while Bruce and Steve were on the other. Tony could tell that everyone else was wary of Bruce, and Tony could tell why. A newspaper and coffee mug lay forgotten on the table in front of him, while he was looking at Tony with an angry fire in his eyes. He could tell that Bruce was really angry. Tony even thought he saw green speckling his normally hazel eyes.

Before anyone said anything, Bruce managed to curse at Tony. That surprised him. Bruce never cursed.

Tony knew that Bruce could be very cranky in the morning. He never really was a morning person.

"What the hell Stark? We've been waiting here an hour and a half for you to wake up and get your lazy ass down here!" he started, fairly loudly. Everyone had jumped a little or had looked shocked when he started. It was the first time any of us had actually seen him shout.

"Well, what were you waiting on me for? It can't be that important." Tony retorted. He thought that he would be the only one brave or stupid enough to start an argument with the Hulk.

Tony could see Bruce's eyes flash a sudden bright green as Tony had said that. The rest also realized this as Tony noticed that they edged back in their seats.

The really should keep a bit of faith in him.

Bruce took of his glasses and put his head in his hands. Tony could hear him taking deep breathes in and out.

He sighed. "Please, just-just sit down," He said in a quiet voice.

Tony followed his order and sat down in an empty chair beside him. As he sat down, he nudged Bruce playfully in the arm. He looked up at Tony and gave him a glare.

"What?" Tony asked innocently.

Bruce sighed once again.

"Hey JARVIS, bring me a coffee. You know how I like it. Oh, and bring the big guy here another coffee. He looks like he needs some and the one over here is cold."

"_Of course sir._" JARVIS answered.

Since all of the avengers were now in the dining room (Thor had joined them not too long ago), they couldn't see the mechanical arms preparing the coffees.

Five minutes later, JARVIS's voice came once again.

"_Your breakfast is ready sir."_

"Thanks J."

Tony got up and walked to get his and Bruce's coffees from the kitchen. On the kitchen table was a tray with two coffee mugs. He picked the tray up and carried them to the dining table in the next room.

Tony placed the tray on the table in front of Bruce.

"Bon appetite." He said with an exaggerated bow.

"Yeah, whatever." Bruce muttered still a little angry, Tony could tell.

Tony sat down and asked JARVIS which coffee was his.

"_The one on the right, sir." _

He picked up the mug on the right and tastes it. It was perfectly made.

"Perfect as always JARVIS."

"_Thank you sir."_

The rest of the avengers had gotten their own breakfast from the kitchen a while ago, so at the moment they weren't eating anything (well, except for Thor of course).

After about ten minutes, Bruce was sitting at the table reading a newspaper, while Tony was still sipping at his coffee. Thor amazingly was still eating some sort of strange combination of who-knows-what. Natasha was leaning back in her chair with her feet propped up on the table, and Clint just looked bored. Rogers was reading a newspaper as well.

A sudden thought came to Tony in the middle of taking another sip of coffee.

"Hey guys, you want to do something fun today?"

"Depends. What is it?" said Natasha

"Well, I thought that we could go out for a little race today."

"Race?" Clint asked, suddenly interested.

"Yeah, let me explain. See, I own a racecourse in New York. The reason you've never heard of it, is of course because I haven't told you about it, and because I haven't used it in a while. So I was thinking for today to be more exiting, we could have a little motorcycle race there." He paused as if expecting something dramatic to happen.

"So? Are you guys in?" Tony asked hopefully.

It was quiet. Then…

"I'll come."

It was Bruce.

Everyone turned to stare at him.

"Ah, I knew you'd turn around eventually!" Tony said as he slapped him on the back.

"But Bruce, are you sure you want to race? On a motorcycle no less? What with you're…problem." Rogers said slowly. He always did want to ruin Tony's fun.

"A little race is not going to set me off." Bruce replied, sounding a little annoyed.

"Whatever you say…" Clint said quietly.

"Well, if Bruce is going, I'll come too. There can't be much harm in a race." Natasha said hesitantly.

"I'll go too." Clint said quickly after Natasha. Tony could understand why.

Rogers sighed. "Well, if you all are going, I'll go to make sure there's not too much destruction."

Tony ignored his comment and turned to Thor expectantly.

"Well friends, I do not know how to ride one of these mooter-ciicles." He said motorcycle slowly, rolling it over his tongue. "I only know of Asgardian vehicles."

"Hmm, that's pretty good. Five out of six. I didn't expect that." Tony said thoughtfully. He had actually not expected Bruce to agree. He thought that being in a race would be too stressful for Bruce, therefore leading to him turning into the Hulk.

Whatever, Tony thought. If he did turn, it would be more entertainment for him.

;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;;-;-;-;-;-;-;-;;-

Another hour and a half found the avengers (excluding Thor of course since he was back at the tower not wanting to race) at a secluded race course in the outskirts of New York. You couldn't see anyone in sight of the track, and it was one big track. If you looked in the distance, you could just barely see the bend of the racecourse. There was grass on either side of the one way road. The track wound around a medium sized hill before it vanished in the distance. If you looked on the opposite side of the track, you could see that it went over a pretty big lake by a wobbly looking bridge. After the lake, the track bent and met up with the start. And that was where all the avengers were standing-at the starting point of the track.

Before they had come, Tony had called one of the guys who maintained this racecourse. He had told him to get five motorcycles ready for the avengers. Surprisingly, he had done a pretty good job with it. In a line at the start, were five slick looking bikes with matching helmets hanging from the handle bars.

One was a bright green, another red and gold. One a sleek black, then a neon purple, and finally a shiny blue and red.

"Whoa." Rogers said.

"Yeah." Bruce said as he ran a hand through his already dishevelled hair.

"It's a big racecourse." Natasha stated.

"Yeah, duh, its mine. It had to be big!"

"Of course it did."

"So, anyways," Tony started. "Let's see what we have here."

Tony walked over to the motorcycles. The rest of the avengers followed behind.

"Hmm, let's see. I'm pretty sure that the green one is for Bruce and that the red and gold one is for me of course. The blue and red for Rogers, and I'm pretty sure the black one is for Natasha. Which leaves the purple one for Clint." Tony clapped his hands together as he finished with the bikes. "Why don't we get this show on the road, huh?"

Tony walked over to his bike, motioning for the rest to follow. Bruce went to his green bike, Natasha to her black, Clint to get purple, and finally Rogers to get his red and blue.

Once they got on their bikes and revved up, a voice came from the blue.

"Hey, you think we can practice first? I haven't ridden a motorcycle in a while now." Bruce asked.

Tony thought for a moment. Even he was a little rusty on motorcycles. He could use the warm up.

So tony shrugged and said, "Why the hell not?"

He revved the engine for show and took off, going in circles around the starting area. He heard the others doing the same, but didn't bother looking. He was in his own world now. No trouble, no avengers, no fighting. Nothing.

He didn't think anyone realized it, but Tony was a busy man. In fact, he hardly had free time. The avenger's initiative made him twice as busy. At least this once, he didn't want to have to worry about anyone or anything. At least once in his life, tony wanted to do something without anyone expecting anything from him. Was that really to much to ask?

Unfortunately, yes it was.

All Tony's life, he had been in the spotlight. His hell of a father expecting him to always live up to his expectations. The people who wanted him to be the genius his father was. The team of avengers who expected him to fight well. Pepper expecting him to be a good boyfriend. The world expecting him to be the perfect genius with no problems. Hell, even terrorists expected something of him, Tony thought bitterly as his thoughts wandered back to the black of the cave. He shivered.

Sometimes it could all be too much. Sometimes, Tony couldn't handle it and drank himself to oblivion to help him cope. It was really his only coping mechanism. It was his only choice.  
Oh what a said life you live, Stark. Tony though. The only thing you can do is hope you're strong enough to deal with everything, and if you're not just drink until you pass out.

And it was true.

Tony didn't have many choices. He had to be this. He had to be a genius superhero, for the other option was far less appealing.

Oh what he would give to be normal. It probably wouldn't even cross people's minds that Tony the stuck up bastard, wanted to be normal. Tony bet that it never crossed anyone's minds that he didn't want this. Any of this.

But of course, if he wasn't this he would have to be "The Merchant of Death", and right now, he would rather die than be that,

But then Tony thought about what the Cap had said.

_Stop trying to be the hero._

Stop trying to be the hero. He hadn't seen the hurt in Tony's eyes when he had said that. Of course he hadn't.

No would ever think that _the _Tony Stark could have feelings too.

That one sentence had hit him like a bullet. If he wasn't the hero, he would be a killer. Does the cap want Tony to be a killer, an-an enemy? He bet Rogers still thinks that he's a stuck up bastard who didn't care if he killed a couple of people in the process of making weapons for the military. But of course, Rogers didn't know that it was slowly eating him alive from the inside.

It was his entire fault. Everyone that was killed because of the weapons _he _built. Of course it was his fault.

It always was.

A voice snapped Tony out of his bitter thoughts.

"Hey, Earth to Tony! Are we starting or not?" it was Clint.

"Huh? Oh-oh yeah. Lets go." Tony said, a little startled. He had just then realized that the other avengers were already lined up at the starting point. Tony drove his motorcycle over to an empty spot on the starting line in between Bruce and Natasha.

After a minute of awkward silence, Bruce asked, "So…who's going to say go?"

"Oh yeah." Tony said as he clapped his hands together. A blue, rectangular screen popped up from the ground.

"Countdown from start. Function number ten. Hmm…" Tony thought for a minute. "2 laps. Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Natasha Romanoff, Clint Barton, and Steve Rogers."

"_Voice recognized. Race will start in one minute."_ A smooth male voice rang throughout the entire course, although it wasn't the same voice as JARVIS.

Rogers had jumped a little when the voice had spoken. He still wasn't used to all the new technology. Tony doubted he would ever get used to it.

On one corner of the holographic screen, a timer was counting down one minute. Right underneath the timer were all the avengers' names in a list. The names would be sorted into placing once the race started. Next to all the names was a tiny number two. That was how many laps was left for each person. They would also decrease once the race started.

"Right so guys, two laps. The scores will be put up on that blue screen up there," Tony pointed to the blue screen. "So whenever someone over takes another person, their name will move up on the scoreboard."

There were now thirty seconds left on the timer.

"Remember, no cheating or my cameras will pick it up and you'll be in for the worst prank in your life. Better start your engines." Tony revved up his bike and he could see smoke coming from the backside from the friction on the ground. The others followed suit.

"_Ten seconds left" _the smooth voice rang out again.

"_9…8…7…6…5…4…3…2…1…"_

"_Go."_

Six motorcycles shot away from the start. Dirt and rubble flew out from the under the tires. So much dirt in fact, that you couldn't see anything for several seconds. When that had cleared up, Tony noticed that he was in second place, closely following Rogers.

The leather jacket he had worn to the course was flowing comically behind him. Tony risked a quick glance behind him and saw that he was closely being followed by Natasha. He couldn't see either Bruce or Clint yet. He revved his engine to go even faster and try to overtake Rogers, but he had noticed that Tony was trying to steal the lead from him, and started to drive faster. They were playing cat and mouse like this for at least five minutes. Tony trying to take over Rogers and Rogers not letting him.

2 minutes later and Tony was getting really tired of this. They had already passed the hill and were now on an open stretch of road. He could barely see the bend of the track in the distance.

As Tony was concentrating on taking over Steve, out of nowhere he saw a flash of green. A dust cloud appeared in front of him, and for a few moments, he was driving blind. Once it cleared up, he realized that a motorcycle had formed that dust cloud. Bruce's motorcycle to be precise.

Bruce was going so fast that the jacket he was wearing looked like it was going to rip at any moment. He had passed both Steve and Tony and was now in the lead.

Steve looked pretty shocked at Bruce passing him. Tony took advantage of that moment of shock and used it to move forward, in front of Steve. It worked and Tony was now in front of Steve and, amazingly, behind Bruce.

Tony hadn't known that Bruce was this good at riding a motorcycle. In fact, he would have though that it would be too much for the big guy. Huh. Apparently not. That guy managed to amaze him everyday, and it took a lot to impress Tony.

By now, Tony was left in the dust of Bruce's motorcycle. He was actually a few feet away from him now. Tony glanced behind himself quickly once again. He now saw Clint tailing him. Behind Clint were Natasha and Steve going neck in neck.

All the motorcycles were now approaching the first bend. Tony slowed down a bit so that he would successfully complete the turn, and he could here Clint's screech of his brakes as he did the same.

However, the strange thing was, was that Bruce didn't seem to be slowing down at all. In fact, he seemed to be speeding up. Tony knew a fair bit about riding a motorcycle, and he knew that if you weren't a pro and you went at a turn that fast, you would crash. That meant that Bruce was going to crash. There was nothing Tony could do about it now, so he just hoped desperately that Bruce knew what he was doing.

Tony could now see that Bruce was right at the mouth of the turn. He leaned left, hard. In fact, he was now leaning so much, that he almost looked parallel to the ground. Tony though that he would crash at any moment, but surprisingly, he didn't.

Now Tony was approaching the turn. He leaned left, but of course not as much as Bruce had done. As suicidal as people thought that Tony was, he wasn't that suicidal. In the distance, he could see Bruce flawlessly finish his turn and right himself so that he shot forward even faster than he was going before. Tony was utterly amazed. He didn't even know that a motorcycle could even go that fast. Well, it seems that you learn something new everyday, Tony thought.

As Tony finished his own turn, he righted himself and tried to accelerate and catch up to Bruce who was well ahead of him now. He was now going 150mph, and he knew that Bruce was going at least double that. Tony tried not to wonder where Bruce had learned his skills on the motorcycle as he had to worry about his own.

Tony strained his ears to try and listen for anyone behind him, but he could no longer hear the purr of an engine behind him. He could hear one, but not very close to him. That was good. If he couldn't beat Bruce, he would at least come in second.

The road now wound around tiny puddles of water and pieces of grassland, just to make it a little more challenging. Tony finished each curve with no problem, but of course he wasn't going as fast as Bruce was.

5 minutes later, there was a break in the grass as the lake approached. Tony's motorcycle drove onto the bridge a few moments after Bruce's had. The bridge shook and wobbled with the tension that Tony's motorcycle was giving it. He could see Bruce almost at the other end of the bridge. By the time Tony had reached the middle of the bridge, Bruce was already long off of it and approaching the final curve before the starting point.

As tony finally got off the bridge, Bruce was already leaning hard to the left and finishing the turn. Tony was still amazed at how well he could do that.

Tony himself neared the curve, slowing down as not to crash. He leaned a little as he went through the turn. Once he straightened himself as the curve became straight road, he could see the starting point of the track. Once he reached that, he would've finished one lap of the race. He could see the scoreboard to the right of him. Tony stole a quick glance of it and saw that, of course, Bruce was the first name on the list. Tony was right underneath him and he was Clint, Natasha, and Steve.

Tony looked back at the road and focused on catching up to Bruce. A few minutes later, he noticed a change in Bruce's speed. It seemed as if he had slowed down for some reason. Tony sped up, and soon overtook Bruce. Tony thought that that was increasingly strange. Why would he just give up the lead like that? Tony tried to look at his face to deduce what he was thinking, but the helmet he was wearing covered his face.

Tony could now hear Bruce behind him, and even that noise became faint as he heard another motorcycle approach from behind. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see that it was Natasha.

Now Tony was completely stumped. Why had Bruce slowed down when he was clearly leading? He had had everyone eating his dust. Was it too much for him? Was the other guy going to come out? It was just so strange.

Tony tried to put it out of his mind as he concentrated on the road. He had just passed the hill once again and was now approaching the turn, and there was still no sign of Bruce. He could hear a motorcycle behind him, but didn't bother to see who it was. Although, he was pretty sure it wasn't Bruce.

Tony righted himself and braced himself for the curvy road before the lake, still wondering why Bruce had slowed down.

Before he knew it, the bridge was if front of him for the last time. Right as Tony was driving on the bridge, he heard the tear of wheels on the ground behind him. Just as he was about to look to see who it was, a flash of green going so fast that it near about scared him shitless, passed by him so close that he could swear he felt it graze his foot.

It took him a second to realize that it was Bruce once again. He had come out of nowhere like a bullet, and he was once again in front of Tony. By now Tony was almost sure that Bruce was going to win. Almost. Tony wasn't going to give up that easily. He accelerated his motorcycle to go even faster, and he even almost caught up to Bruce. Though Bruce had noticed and manoeuvred so that Tony could not pass him.

Now they were at the very last turn of the race. Bruce was doing his specialty trick turn going even faster than he was before. Tony was shocked at how well Bruce could drive. He had no clue.

Tony was at the turn now as well, and before he knew it, he had passed the turn. In the distance, he could see Bruce and saw that he was fast approaching the finish. He drove sideways right through it and skidded expertly to a stop.

A few seconds later and Tony had reached the finish and stopped the same way Bruce had, though less cleanly. He saw the other come in just seconds after, Natasha came in third, Steve fourth, and finally Clint last.

Bruce took off his helmet to reveal that his usually in order curly hair was now messy and dishevelled. Tony also took off his helmet, as did the rest of the avengers.

"Hey, nice race guys." Bruce's still ridiculously calm voice spoke. Tony couldn't even believe that the guy with major issues when he had a quick heart rate had just won a high speed motorcycle race against Tony Stark. Tony would bet that the guy didn't even have a slightly fast heart rate. Tony knew that his was beating a mile a minute.

Tony stalked up to Bruce and jabbed a finger in his chest, leaving his motorcycle forgotten. Bruce looked at him with an amused expression on his face.

"You are a deceitful little bastard, you know that? You won a race against me, Tony Stark and all you have to say is 'nice race guys'? You will tell me everything now." Natasha, Clint, and Steve were now surrounding Tony and Bruce also wanting to know how Bruce had done it.

"Tell you what?" Bruce asked innocently.

"First of all, where did you learn to ride a motorcycle? And that good? I _really_ hate admit it, but even I cant ride that well."

Bruce sighed, defeated. "Fine, I'll tell you. Not like you're going to let this go any day soon."

Tony could see sadness and pain in his eyes and he was willing to pay a hundred bucks that no one else had seen it. Bu the look in his eyes, Tony though that this probably had to something to do with the time Bruce spent on the run. He hadn't wanted to revoke painful memories, but it was too late to back down now.

Bruce sighed once again as he took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"It happened when I first got the…the other guy. It had been a few months and I was hiding out in a remote in South Africa. I was new with all the control my anger thing, so it was really hard for me not to turn into the other guy every single day. It was hard enough without everything around me reminding me that I had literally lost every single thing I had to my name," Bruce paused for a second. Tony tried to imagine how it would feel if he lost Stark industries, but came up at a loss.

Bruce continued. "So one day, as I'm sitting on the floor trying to meditate, I hear something. It sounds like a mixture of shuffling feet and clacking. I dismiss it as some sort of animal, but I should've known better."

"A few minutes later, I realized that it was much worse than an animal, but it was already too late. Somebody had knocked down the door of my two room house and caught me standing stock still in the middle of one of the rooms." Bruce rubbed his eyes beneath his glasses.

"I thought I was a goner, dead, a lab creature. I thought I had no way of getting out of that mess and that I was going to get captured for sure. I couldn't afford to turn into the hulk. There was a small city near by and they definitely did not deserve the destruction that usually follows me. So I was basically stuck between a rock and a hard place." He paused once again.

"Though I did know that I wasn't going to go without a fight. If I was getting captured, I would at least try and fight. So what I did, was I ran into the next room, trying to keep my heart rate from going up which, trust me, is a lot easier said than done. I scrambled over to the drawer next to my stiff bed. I open it and inside is the gun I took everywhere with me since the accident. I always kept it with me in case something like this were to happen." Bruce's voice grew soft toward the end of that sentence, as if the memory of that gun haunted him.

Tony knew why, and he doubted anyone else would notice.

That was the very same gun he later would use to try and kill himself, Tony realized. He felt a pang of sadness toward Bruce.

Suddenly, Natasha said, "Smart move Banner."

Tony was right to think that no one else would notice.

"I know." He said reluctantly.

"so anyways," he said trying to redirect the conversation. "I reload the gun and clack the revolver. By now there are five military men dressed in black army suits in my room. They have huge guns in their hands that no doubt held tranquilizer darts in them. I didn't want to kill them because I knew they were just following orders, so I shot at their legs in places I knew would just deem them unable to walk."

"Ahh, Banner always the soft one." Clint exclaimed, clucking his teeth.

"In the room I was in," Bruce continued, "there was only one small window in the corner of the room. I couldn't go out the front door of course, so I quickly dragged my drawer to the window, hopped up on it, and scrambled out the window, trying not to cut myself on the glass I had smashed. Un fortunately, it didn't work and I fell down from the window ledge, surprised as a stray shard of glass cut the side of my arm. My heartbeat quickened for a moment and I feared I would turn into the other guy, but I forced myself to calm down."

By now everyone were engrossed in Bruce's story. Tony and the rest listened intently as Bruce continued.

"I couldn't waste any more time, so I ran away from my small village house. Before leaving, I caught a quick glance of my house and saw that it was crawling with military personnel. I knew it wouldn't be long before they noticed that I had left, so I ran as fast as I could away from there, though I didn't know where."

"In the distance, I luckily spotted a motorcycle that belonged to one of the military officers. Fortunately for me, it still had the key in it. I had only ridden a motorcycle about 7 times in my life, but I still knew how to ride pretty good. So I hopped and started the engine. Just as I started the engine, a military officer who was not too far away had noticed me and pointed and called out to some of his fellow buddies. They went and climbed onto their bikes to try and follow me." Bruce laughed bitterly. "Just my luck huh?"

Before any of us could answer, he continued.

"by now pretty much all the military officers not searching my house were after me. I had already sped away and was now on the dirt road of the village. I drove as fast as I could without crashing, but the soldiers were right on my tail."

"Wait they were soldiers?" Steve asked.

"Yep."

A disgusted face appeared on Rogers face as Bruce continued on.

"They were even shooting tranquilizer darts at me. I veered side to side to try and avoid the, sometimes getting so low to the ground that my foot grazed the dirt."

"Damn…" Tony muttered.

"I curved and went as fast as I could to try to shake them off my tail, but nothing worked. It took all my willpower to not bring my heart rate up. It was all I could do between concentrating on not getting hit by darts, not crashing, and not turning into the other guy. As I was driving like a maniac, I finally got an idea. On one side of the dirt road, was a small lake. My idea was that if I could go fast enough, I could then fake that was going to crash into the lake. The soldiers would then follow me and crash into the lake because there was a small drop in the road before the lake approached."

"Good thinking." Clint quipped.

"Right before the lake approached, I sped up and turned sharply to the right. I could hear the military officers behind me doing the same. Just as I was about to fall into the lake, I turned sharply to the left and accelerated so I could get back up on the dirt road. I could hear splashes behind me as the motorcycles fell into the lake. I however, safely got back on the dirt road and sped away in the opposite direction as fast as I could."  
"Damn, nice one Bruce!" Tony exclaimed.

"Yeah!" Clint said as well.

Bruce chuckled bitterly. "I even heard more splashed behind me as more motorcycles fell into the water or crashed into others that had stopped halfway down the road. It was an amazing feeling. The wind in my hair, feeling free…I sped away from the village after that. No one followed me as I was too far away by then."

"Nice you escaped!" Steve said.

"Yeah, and now you guys know how I learned to ride a motorcycle." Bruce grimaced painfully as if the memory brought him physical pain. Tony knew how much it hurt to relive your most painful memories, and It was never a good feeling.

Tony was also amazed at how much in control Bruce must've been when this happened. He's always telling everyone that he's dangerous, when he's actually a lot more in control than he lets on.

"I guess I just imagined that I was being followed by angry soldiers during the race," Bruce said as he ran a hand through his hair. Tony could hear a pang of sadness in his voice. "Guess it worked."

"yeah it worked!" Tony exclaimed as he went over to pat Bruce on the back, trying to lighten up the mood. "You had us eating your dust!"

"Yeah Bruce, you were amazing." Said the ever polite soldier.

"Yeah man!" Clint shouted.

Natasha just went over to him and smiled sympathetically. Bruce smiled back and Tony could tell that Natasha had done the trick.

"Come on guys, lets go back to the tower." Natasha said after a while.

"Well that was a change wasn't it," said Steve as they were all walking back to Tony's Audi. "A good change from all the fighting."

"Yeah." The rest of the team voiced.

Tony broke the peaceful pause. "You guys want to watch some porn when we get back?"

Everyone gave Tony a glare.

"What?" He asked innocently.

"your ruining the moment here." Whispered Clint harshly as he punched him in the arm.

"Hey that hurt!" Tony whined.

"Yeah whatever."

And just like that, the avengers drove back to Stark tower, for in that race the team was one step closer to bonding.

**Well, there you have it. Another story in the works. Now, a week after this I will have the next chapter to "Only one person left" **

**Remember to read that story as well as this one. **

**Read and review!**

**-Detective DG**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey guys! I decided to make a chapter two of bonding! **

**I was bored and I got this idea for a chapter. There isn't much of Tony in this, but I think I have an idea for the third chapter and he is going to be in it. **

**If I get good response for this chapter I'll continue! I promise.**

**Thank you to everyone who reviewed, favorited, or followed! Thank you!**

It was another day at the Avenger's tower. The sun was shining, birds were singing, and the avengers were having breakfast.

"Hey Steve, can you pass me the milk?" Bruce asked as he was drinking his coffee while reading today's newspaper.

"Sure Bruce." Steve passed over the full pitcher of milk. Bruce took it and poured it into his obviously decaf coffee.

Tony was sitting next too Bruce, tapping away at one of his Stark tablets. Steve was across the table from them and was eating a half boiled egg. Natasha and Clint were sitting together, eating corn flakes and observing the table. Thor had gone to Asgard for a visit. He was never at the Avenger's tower for a long time at once. He had duties at Asgard.

Today was a day like any other. The avengers always started their days out like this. Everyone would come in and sit at the breakfast table at their usual spots. After that, Natasha and Clint would usually go to S.H.I.E.L.D as they still held their jobs as shield assassins. Tony and Bruce would go to the labs to work and Steve would go to the gym to vandalize more punching bags. Bruce did doubt that they all did the same thing all day, but he was never walking around to find out.

Today was a little different though. Natasha and Clint had one week off on paid leave for one reason or another. Bruce would never bother to find out as he knew that they were very secretive and would open up to absolutely no one. Though, that did mean that most of the avengers would be at the tower today.

Bruce took another sip of his decaffeinated coffee. He looked outside the huge wall to wall windows and saw the New York skyline. It was about 9 in the morning and the streets were as busy as ever. Bruce really didn't have anything planned for today, so he asked what the others were going to do.

"Hey, you guys doing anything today?" He asked.

"I'm going to the gym." Steve stated.

"I'll be at the lab," said Tony.

"Clint and I were going to the gym too." Natasha glanced at Clint and he nodded softly.

So everyone had something to do except for Bruce. For some reason, he really did not feel like going to the lab today. He thought that it had to do something with being up until 3 the last night. So he had an idea.

"Hey can I train with you guys?"

Bruce had a feeling that he would need to know how to do hand to hand combat. After all, he couldn't always rely on the hulk.

At first, the others all looked at him as if he had grown an extra head. Their eyes widened at the thought. Bruce was about to backtrack and tell them to forget he ever had the idea when Steve shook himself out of his stupor.

"Uh, ye-yeah sure you can come Bruce."

Natasha was next. "I think that's a good idea. You're going to have to learn manual combat some time or another."

Bruce relaxed a bit. He was glad that the others would except him like that. And honestly, he was a bit surprised that they didn't say no because of the danger of the Hulk. He would've thought that they would be afraid that the Hulk would make an appearance. Bruce was sure he could hold him in for a little fight. He had done it before of course.

Tony's was still looking at Bruce with a silly, malicious grin on his face. Bruce didn't know how he could pull off a grin like that, but he did. "Wait, if Bruce is fighting someone I am definitely seeing this. I better tell JARVIS to record it."

Bruce repressed the urge to roll his eyes. Instead he said, "It's settled then. We can go down to the gym after breakfast."

The others nodded in agreement.

Bruce did have some experience in combat from his "trip" to Brazil. Sometimes when he was on the run, kind people would help and teach him how to fight. At least, it would be like that until he had to run again.

Bruce was a little rusty though. It'd been so long since he was in a real fist fight. He was pretty sure that he could still take a hit though.

So that's why, half an hour later Bruce found himself in the gym, along with Natasha, Clint, Steve and Tony.

"All right Bruce lets see what you can already do." Natasha beckoned Bruce to the mat in the centre of the gym that was used for combat training. Clint and Steve would be standing guard on the edge of the mat in case anything went wrong. Namely Bruce turning in to the Hulk. Bruce was determined not to let that happen though. Tony was a few ways away sipping on a glass of what looked like…orange juice? He never thought he had it in him to drink anything other than coffee or scotch.

Bruce walked over and stood across from Natasha on the mat.

"Don't go easy on me okay?" Bruce asked tentatively. "I can take a hit."

"Whatever you say boss." She smirked which was kind of scary considering that Bruce was standing across from her about to take her on.

Bruce stood with his hands in front of his face, ready to block a punch. Natasha posed in a battle ready position as well. They waited for a minute or two, no one daring to breathe.

Finally, Natasha was the one to take the first move.

She drew her hand back as if she was going to throw a punch, but instead of throwing a punch, she kicked up into Bruce's face. Bruce saw this coming at the last second as he saw a twitch in her right leg. He ducked down low and just avoided getting a foot in her face.

Natasha's eyes widened at this show of quick reaction. Bruce ignored it and went in for a right hook. It didn't hit as Natasha was quick to dodge. Bruce knew that she was surprised at him to know how to fight, but it sort of came with being on the run for so long.

Bruce leaned back, breathing in and out a couple times. He had never felt this exhilarated from being in a fight for a long time. It was always the Hulk who did the dirty work. Honestly, Bruce thought it was exiting. He had to push the Hulk to the back of his mind as he could sense Bruce's excitement.

Bruce focused his attention on Natasha once again. She started to roundhouse kick at Bruce and Bruce leaned back at the last second. This time, the edge of her shoe caught its mark. Bruce felt something hard hit his nose. He cried out and held a hand to his nose.

He raised a hand to Natasha and Natasha stopped her fighting.

"Uh, Bruce, your eyes are green. Are you sure you want to do this?" she asked, with just the tiniest bit of fear in her voice.

Bruce slightly shook his head and smirked inwardly. People were always so quick to judge. She didn't know what was coming.

Bruce straightened up quickly and turned sideways as he aimed a quick kick at Natasha's midsection. It was well placed and Natasha wasn't expecting it. She would have anticipated it coming if it was anyone other than Bruce who was battling her. Bruce's kick found its mark and Natasha stumbled back a couple of steps in sheer surprise.

"Rule number one. Don't let your opponent distract you." Bruce noted.

Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw Clint and Steve looking slightly apprehensive and more surprised than anything. Tony burst out laughing at Natasha. "Good one Bruce!" he shouted.

Bruce's eyes flitted back at Natasha. She was getting ready for another attack and had a sneer on her face. She drew her hand back and faked a right hook only to make it into an uppercut. Bruce barely dodged that as he went into a sweep of his own. Natasha jumped back and somersaulted onto the floor. Bruce had no idea how she did that as she ended up standing right in front of him once again.

Bruce remembered what his teacher in Brazil had told him: "Always defend. You have a better chance of winning if you use defence as offense."

So Bruce heeded that advice and did not throw as many punches as he dodged most of Natasha's. He let Natasha throw all the punches and kicks. He dodged every single on of them except the last expertly placed kick. Natasha had spun around and placed a kick for Bruce's arm. Bruce side stepped, but that did nothing in blocking it. That's why something sharp on Natasha's shoe caught onto Bruce's skin and caused it to rip.

"Agh!" He cried out. He blocked another punch and felt a well of anger spike out of nowhere. That was when Natasha stopped. The other guy had noticed Bruce was hurt. He pushed him to the back of his mind. As Bruce looked at where he was cut, he saw a wound the size of his palm spewing crimson blood.

"Hey you all right?" Natasha asked.

"Yeah, yeah I'm good. Just get me a bandage and a Kleenex, quick."

Natasha narrowed her eyes. She reached out to the wound.

"Stop!" Bruce shouted. Natasha drew her hand back in surprise.

"What's wrong?" Steve asked from one side of the gym.

"Whatever you do, don't touch the blood." Bruce said frantically.

"Why?"

"Because it's radioactive and poisonous. If you touch it, you will die."

Natasha took a couple steps back. That was usually the reaction when people found that out.

Seconds later, Bruce saw Tony come over with a Kleenex and a heavy duty bandage in hand.

"Put them on the ground. Don't touch my hand." Bruce said. Tony looked like he was going to say something, but thought better of it. He instead placed the tissue and bandage on the ground.

Bruce picked up both items, painfully aware that the others were standing a bit farther away from him. He cleaned most of the blood and applied the bandage. Then he went to the washroom that was built in the gym and washed the remaining blood of his hands.

Once he was done, he walked back into the gym area and saw the other standing in the exact same places he left them in. Bruce felt a pang of sadness.

To lighten up the mood he said, "Would you like to continue, Miss. Romanoff?"

Natasha's eyes widened and he saw the smallest glimmer of fear in her eyes before she said, "Of course."

The rest resumed in their watching as Natasha and Bruce took their places at the mat. This time, Bruce had a plan. He knew that Natasha was going to throw the first punch, and sure enough, she did. First she punched at Bruce's stomach. Bruce saw this coming and ducked low to the ground to avoid it. He rolled to the side and came up standing on the other side of Natasha. She whirled around and quickly punched Bruce's face. He saw a hand coming at his face and the next thing Bruce knew was a shot of pain. Black spots appeared in his vision and he told the other guy to back of for what felt like the millionth time. He felt himself going green around the edges, but he pushed it down deeper into his mind.

As Natasha came in for another punch, Bruce dodged it and launched himself forward. He used his and Natasha's momentum, ducked low, grabbed Natasha's torso and pushed forward.

This was also another trick he learned in Brazil. He breathed deeply and everything seemed to move in slow motion. As the momentum from both him and Natasha translated into power, he flipped Natasha onto his back. She twisted severely onto her back and landed onto the floor, hard.

Bruce heard a soft "Umph!" as Natasha landed on the floor. Bruce quickly turned around to see Natasha on the floor with pure amazement in her eyes.

Bruce smirked softly and held out a hand for Natasha to pull herself up. She accepted it and pulled herself onto her feet. She rubbed her back as she looked at Bruce, speechless.

Bruce looked at the others watching the fight and saw that they were as surprised as Natasha was. Bruce took a minute to catch his breath. Once he knew his heartbeat was in a safe place, he looked at the others again.

"Well? What do you think?"

"What do you think…Bruce, how the hell did you do that? And how did you do that without any training?" Tony asked, being the first to come out of his stupor.

"I am an expert of SHIELD, trained by the best and you just pinned me to the ground!" Natasha stated.

Bruce rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Yeah, I was taught in Brazil by a teacher who knew about the Hulk. He thought that I needed the training. And he was right."

"Damn…" Clint said.

"But I still need practice guys. The trick I just showed you is basically the only useful trick I know."

"Hey…I could teach you how to shoot!" Clint exclaimed from behind Bruce.

Bruce bit the inside of his mouth. He didn't think that was a very good idea.

"And of course, I'll help you with the guns." Natasha quipped from on the mat.

He looked at the two of them. They looked so eager. Finally he said, "Fine."

I went over to Natasha as she said, "JARVIS, activate the shooting range."

"_Of course Miss. Romanoff."_

There was a faint whirring as four targets appeared in the gym of the side, each one farther than the next. Natasha walked to the corner of the gym where they put all of their equipment. She picked up two different kinds of guns-a simple revolver and a more complex AK-47.

"Lets start with the guns first." She said while glaring at Clint. Clint pouted as he realized that he would be teaching how to use the arrow yet.

Natasha handed over the revolver to Bruce.

"I want you to shoot at the first target."

Bruce nodded and took his stance. A rush of memories came to his mind as he remembered when he last held a gun in his hand. He was trying to kill himself. He froze for a second, as the memories came rushing back as a waterfall in his head. He didn't think the others noticed this. He pushed the memories to the back of his mind, along with the other guy and aimed for the target instead.

He let out a small puff of air as he held his arms out in front of him. He clicked off the safety and tensed his index finger.

Finally, he shot and the bullet flew until it hit the target, more or less in the centre.

"Hey that was good!" Natasha exclaimed.

"Hey big guy, shoot for the farthest target! I'll give you ten bucks if you hit the centre!" Tony called from where he was sitting.

Bruce smirked. "You're on."

He stood on the mat once again in a shooters stance. He drew in a breath of air and let it out slowly. Bruce eyeballed the last, farthest target and aimed straight for the middle. His finger tensed and he shot the gun. The shot rang out in the air as it hit the target.

And sure enough, there was a bullet hole smack dab in the middle.

A small smirk played on Bruce's mouth as he walked over to Tony. "I think you owe me."

"Whatever…" Tony sneered, but handed over the ten bucks nevertheless.

"Damn Bruce, how did you do that? I never knew you could shoot a gun that well."

Bruce sighed. "I don't know. Practice, I guess?"

But what the others didn't know was that there was more to that sentence than Bruce was ready to let on. What he had told the Avengers on the helicarrier was only half the truth. Bruce had tried to take his life more than once. He had tried four times before. Each time he had totally and utterly failed. Each time, the other guy would appear and wreak havoc on the world surrounding him.

To never forget his failures, he had kept his gun that he shot himself with each time, close by. In fact, it was lying in one of the drawers in his room under a lot of clothing. He could never and would never let himself forget.

"Hey Bruce, you okay?" He heard Steve's polite voice.

"ye-yeah, I'm fine. Just got a little distracted there." He blew it off like it was nothing. That was what he always did.

Bruce walked over to Natasha and handed over the gun to her.

"You know what guys, why don't we continue this tomorrow? I'm a little tired."

"Sure Bruce." Natasha said.

He walked over to the doors to the gym and just before he left, he heard Clint say, "Same time tomorrow? I'll show you how to use the bow!"

Bruce turned around slightly and smiled softly. "Of course."

Then he opened the doors and left. He walked over to the elevator and stepped in.

"My room please."

"_Of course Dr. Banner," _came JARVIS's reply.

The elevator started to move, and soon it stopped on floor 37, where his room was located. He stepped out of the elevator and walked quickly to his room. The door creaked as he opened it and he winced at the sound.

Bruce sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. He scrambled over to the drawer where he kept his gun. There was a whole bunch of clothing in the drawer. If anyone was going through it, they would have to dig pretty well to find the gun. Finally, after a lot of digging, Bruce came up with the sleek gun.

He picked it up and ran a finger along its surface. The grooves and ridges were oddly comforting. It was a reminder of all his failures. All five of them. He knew that sooner or later, something would happen that would be so horrible that he would've let down everyone in the tower.

Bruce slid down to the floor and cradled his head in his hands.

Until that day came, the gun lay in his drawer under the many articles of clothing. For now, he would allow the others to bond with him, but he would never fully bond with them. He couldn't let himself.

He just _couldn't. _

He couldn't allow himself to forget, and that was his curse.

**Wow. Well, that was a dramatic ending. **

**Now this was a short break from "Only one person left." **

**Don't worry, I'll be back to that with an update in a bout a week!**

**Please review! I love reading them.**

**-Detective DG.**


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